Recently, Vizio agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission and the state of New Jersey a total of US$2.2M to settle a complaint that it spied on its TV customers. It’s an unexpected and sorry state of affairs when a new, beautiful, expensive 4K/UHD TV is also reporting on your viewing habits. John offers some advice on how to put a stop to that spying.

In a world where people are still having a hard time accepting that smartphones cost money, Apple is prepping a special 10th anniversary iPhone model, and it’s going to cost more than US$1,000. The special model will reportedly be called the iPhone 8, and despite the hefty price tag people will likely buy it.

Apple’s next iPhone will reportedly sport an OLED display, and now insider sources are saying Sharp ramping up to be a supplier in a Foxconn factory. Sharp is investing about US$864 million in the production line at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou City facility in northern China to make OLED displays, presumably all for Apple.

LAS VEGAS — For a long time, Sony has had an excellent reputation for building great TVs. However, until yesterday, only LG was selling those magnificent OLED 4K/UHD TVs. Now, Sony has joined the fray with its own branded OLED 4K/UHD sets, and they’re amazing. And not only HDR but Dolby Vision to boot. The word is… wow.

The fight is on to be the supplier for next year’s iPhone OLED displays. Samsung and LG are hoping to get a slice of that pie, and their fight all but confirms Apple is dropping LCD in favor of OLED for iPhone screens in 2017 or 2018.

Research into Artificial Intelligence will evolve into many more applications than asking Amazon’s Echo how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon. Or driving an autonomous car. As the technology expands in its capabilities and applications, we’ll be confronted with massive social change. How will Apple, for example, both serve us and meet competitive challenges?

Flat panel display technology continues to evolve. A decade ago, we had Plasma and LCD TV sets. LCDs were adopted for use in iPhones and iPads, but they require backlighting. Then we had OLEDs (used in the Apple Watch). Now there’s Quantum Dots and microLEDs. John provides a primer.